Sri Lanka stocks rebound, ends two week fall

ECONOMYNEXT- Sri Lanka’s stocks rebounded 1 percent Thursday, reversing a two week fall on the back of buying interest on Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) and John Keells Holdings (JKH).

The benchmark All Share Price Index (ASPI) closed 51.81 points higher at 5,251.79, making steady gains throughout the day to an intra-day high of 5,259.13 prior to easing minutes before trading close.

The more liquid stocks on the S&P SL20 Index closed 0.55 percent or 13.33 points higher at 2,454.73.

Market turnover on Thursday was 552.4 million rupees with 90 stocks gaining and 39 falling. There was heavy foreign selling, with net outflows of 358 million rupees from the market.

Market sentiment among locals was buoyed by unconfirmed speculation that a state fund may have started to buy stocks.

The ASPI reversed a two week fall which began on April 30.

The market had been declining since April 23, when the market reopened after the Easter Sunday Bombings and recorded the worst daily fall in seven-years to reach a seven-year low, followed by a rally until April 30.

Prior to the bombings, the market had shown upward momentum for three weeks.

The market rebounded on Thursday despite gloomy news from the banking industry, which suffered from rising loan losses and shrinking balance sheets in the March quarter.